William Tyndale: The Plowboy

William Tyndale, a series in two parts. Part 1: The Plowboy · Part 2: The Price

The moment

William Tyndale was born in the early 1490s in Gloucestershire and educated at Oxford. He later taught at Cambridge, where he joined a circle of scholars reading the New Testament in Greek.

In England at that time, translating the Bible into English without permission was a crime. Ordinary people heard Scripture in Latin, a language they could not understand, and depended on the clergy to tell them what the text said.

John Foxe, writing a generation later, records an argument between Tyndale and a learned cleric. Tyndale is said to have answered that if God spared his life, before many years he would cause a boy who drove the plow to know more of the Scripture than the cleric did.

What he did

He asked for permission first. He sought support from church authorities in England for an English translation. He was refused.

He left everything. In 1524, with money from London merchants, he went to Germany. He never returned to England.

He worked from the source. Tyndale translated the New Testament directly from the Greek, not from the Latin version the church used. The translation was finished in 1525.

He kept printing when stopped. The first printing, at Cologne, was interrupted by the authorities. He moved to Worms and printed there. The first copies were smuggled into England in 1526 and were banned at once.

What leaders can take from this part

Put the source in people’s hands. Tyndale believed ordinary people could read, understand, and judge for themselves. Delegating authority begins with giving people direct access to what the leader knows.

Aim at the person farthest from power. He did not write for scholars. He set his standard by a farm boy. A leader who makes the essential things clear to the least trained person has made them clear to everyone.

Try the proper channel, then count the cost. He asked first. When the answer was no, he did not pretend the answer was yes. He gave up his country to do the work.

Obstacles change the route, not the goal. A raid stopped one press. He found another.

Next, Part 2: The Price →